True Empathy

True
empathy is of Him Who knows what it is. YOU will learn HIS interpretation
of it, if you let Him use YOUR capacity for strength, and NOT for
weakness.

He
will NOT desert you, but be sure that YOU desert not Him. Humility
is strength in this sense only; to recognize and ACCEPT the fact that
you do NOT know, is to recognize and accept the fact that He DOES
know. You are not sure that He will do His part, because you have
NEVER YET DONE YOURS COMPLETELY. You will NOT know how to respond
to what you do NOT understand. Be tempted not in this and yield not
to the ego's triumphant use of empathy, for ITS glory. The triumph
of weakness is NOT what you would offer to a brother. And yet you
know no triumph but this. This is NOT knowledge, and the form of empathy
that would bring it about, is so distorted that it would imprison
what it would release.

The unredeemed cannot redeem. Yet
they HAVE a Redeemer. Attempt to teach Him not. YOU are the learner; HE
the Teacher. Do not confuse your role with His, for this will never
bring peace to anyone. Offer your empathy to Him, for it is HIS
perception and His STRENGTH that you would share. And let Him offer you
HIS strength and HIS perception, to be shared THROUGH you.

The meaning of love is lost in any
relationship which looks to weakness, and hopes to find it there. The
POWER of love, which IS its meaning, lies in the strength of God, which
hovers over it and blesses it silently, by enveloping it in healing
wings. LET THIS BE, and do not try to substitute YOUR "miracle" for
this.

We once said that, if a brother asks
a foolish thing of you, to do it. But be certain that this does NOT mean
to do a foolish thing that would hurt either him or you, for what would
hurt one WILL hurt the other. Foolish requests ARE foolish, for the
simple reason THAT THEY CONFLICT, because they contain an element of
specialness. Only the Holy Spirit recognizes foolish needs, AS WELL AS
real ones. And He will teach you how to meet BOTH, without losing
either.

YOU
will be able to do this ONLY IN SECRECY. And you will think that, by
meeting the needs of one, you do NOT jeopardize another, because you
keep them SEPARATE, and secret from each other. This is NOT the way, for
it leads not to light and truth. No needs will long be left unmet, if
you leave them ALL to Him Whose FUNCTION is to meet them. This is His
function, and NOT YOURS. He will NOT meet them secretly, for He would
share everything you give through Him. And that is WHY He gives it. What
you give through Him is for the whole Sonship, NOT FOR PART OF IT. Leave
Him His function, for He WILL fulfill it, if you but ask Him to enter
your relationships, and bless them FOR you.]